Useful tips Thread - Rogue's Tale

Please post your advanced gameplay tips here. I'll start:

- If you find a ring of control, you can wear it and eat blood caps without being paralysed or confused, the two more annoying effects associated with them. You can still be blinded, but since you can rest while blind, and take advantage of any healing from being satiated, this isn't so bad. And it means you're set for rations for the rest of the game.

Note, however, that you can still take poison damage and/or be affected by Deadly Poison while harvesting them. This is rare, but it's best to have an antidote or a ring of immunity handy just in case. Alternatively, you can save harvesting them for after you've otherwise cleared a level, and use instant travel to get the poison cured by town merchants.

- If you have a ranged weapon or spell handy, you can tell whether a creature has noticed you by the colour of the cursor when you target it. If it's blue (neutral) then the creature either hasn't noticed you yet, or is one of the rare friendly humans who can teach you skills or spells.

- Use spellcasting amulets judiciously. I've seen amulets of enchantment and transmutation shatter after enough uses, and other kinds may do so as well. Don't save them up until it's too late and you're dead, but don't waste them on trivial situations (like transmuting really cheap items) either.

- The majority of items make little or no profit when sold after paying for identification unless they're blessed and/or enchanted, and sometimes even then. Exceptions include the Hammer, Barrier, iron Shield and Barrier, Plate Helm, Chain Armour and Plate Armour, all of which can be sold for clear profit as long as they're undamaged. Scrolls are rarely profitable to sell, and potions virtually never. Tomes vary widely, as do rings and amulets.

- Silent Move will save your life more than any other talent. Its basic use involves opening doors and walking into rooms while invisible, or doing the same with stairs. You can assess the situation, and retreat or adjust your equipment as necessary (like when that orc shaman isn't going to be impressed by your amulet of etheral form), without risking obliteration by an enemy standing too close. It even works when entering new dungeons - just Silent Move onto the town stairs before using the reset button. Advanced uses include stepping into the LOS of archers and casters, then using Silent Move around a corner to get into prime backstabbing position when they follow; hiding by a door after accidentally (or deliberately) triggering an alarm trap, and seeing who comes out (and maybe backstabbing them as they do, depending on the situation); fading into the background during mass fights between different enemy factions, staying safe while they wipe each other out; andt aking cover to heal using rations or a ring of regeneration if a fight gets too dangerous.

- Heroic Charge will not work on empty spaces, but it will work on invisible creatures. If you think there's an inivisble creature in your vicinity, this can be very useful.

You can repair Enchantement Amulet with Scroll of Blessing. After you use the amulet, the log says if it gets corrupted. If you use it after that, it will shatter. Repair it and keep on using it. Amulet price gets halved or so if it's corrupted.

- Enslaved daemons (from the Summon Daemon or Enslave Daemon spells, or the Amulet of Conjuration) will not fight back while enslaved. Kill them with impunity before the enslavement wears off and they turn hostile.

- Enslavement from spells can fail, so be careful using Summon Daemon in critical situations lest you just end up adding another enemy to the fight. This particularly applies when fighting other daemons, whom it would join rather than fight.

- Humans have no natural resistances before armour. Orcs have moderate resistances (level/5 rounded up) to everything except physical. Daemons have moderate resistances to everything, but devourers have lower physical resistance than the rest. Undead have high resistances (1.5 times the other value) to shock, poison and disease, and moderate resistances to Fire and Frost.

- As far as I can tell, the spell selections used by different casters are fixed. Learn which spells each one uses, and Amulets of X Ward become much more valuable. From memory, orc shamans like Shocking Orb, devourers like Flaming Orb and undead like Frozen Orb.

- Those soul gems devourers and ghosts carry? They can be spent to power Release Soul, which does 2d6 + STA unresistable damage (as opposed to 1d6 + STA resistable damage from other casters), not counting the Focused Cast damage bonus, which they get early. Until they run out of soul gems (assuming they don't cheat), devourers and ghosts are much more dangerous than other casters.

- Keep a ring of resilience handy for fighting knights and Infernals and the new boss, who all have Killing Blow. In addition, the wand of maelstrom and at least one cursed scroll can cause you to be hit with an instant death effect.

- Levelling up the dog for heritages is easier if you work hard to keep your own level low, since normal enemies aren't allowed to exceed your level. I use a strength build with heavy armour and a shield, and tank blows for the dog while it kills everything. Even better if you can learn Celestial magic (which doesn't mind armour and shields so much, though lack of charisma might be a problem) for healing and curing. Beware of poison and curses especially, since without the right spells you have no way of curing the dog of these things, and it will likely die.

- One Strange Trip should be a priority for your own heritage unlocks. Never having to worry about rations again, and being able to reliably go into tough battles fully satiated, is a game-changer. It's also not as tough an unlock as it looks, as long as you save your eating until you've cleared a level, and make sure there are no traps left near you. A Ring of Control, as mentioned above, will help hugely.

- You have two options with Rings of Haste and Amulets of Free Action. Equip them on a room-by-room basis, and take them off the rest of the time to preserve satiation, or keep them on all the time. Once you have One Strange Trip, I strongly recommend the latter on non-cleared floors. I have died a number of times from forgetting to put a ring of haste on before what initially looked like a manageable battle.

- Heroic Charge cannot trigger traps, and will path around traps whenever possible. Keep an eye on charge paths to work out possible trap locations, and also beware of charging enemies when using Trap Master.

- Friends can knock down doors and break locked objects for you, though it may take quite a few tries. Combine with the above dog-levelling strategy, and you can slow down xp gain (and boost it for the dog) even further.

- The easiest way to obtain the Epic Breed heritage is by staying at as low a level as possible, stockpiling lots of food, wearing the heaviest armour you can assemble, a shield, and a ring of immunity, and staying in a spider web. Your dog can ratchet up XP by killing the spiders (you may want to get it a few other heritages first to make sure it can kill them before they poison it), and eventually a mamalob will spawn even if you're below the normal level for monster spawns. Level 1 mamalobs only have 13 hp - easy for a decently-levelled dog to take out while the mamalob is busy trying to chew through your armour. When I did this, my dog got through three mamalobs before the dungeon ran out of food and I had to move on.

- Don't wear the Amulet of Ghost Form during general exploration. This may seem counter-intuitive, since it completely protects you from most traps. The thing is, though, that most traps won't kill you anyway as long as you're on full health when they hit you (except the boulder trap). On the other hand, a magic trap on someone wearing the Amulet of Ghost Form is practically guaranteeed to be YASD.

- A level is generated when you first set foot inside it, rather than when you reset the dungeon. This means that it's to your advantage to go down the stairs as soon as you find them, and then back up again. This will not "trigger" any creature activity, or alert them to your existence, but it *will* fix their levels, with your current level as a maximum. Then, if you level up before coming down properly, that level increase will not be passed on to your enemies.

- Because the Travel function will not activate until you've fully explored a level, it has a handy secondary use as a test to see if you've missed any rooms before going further down. However, that includes darkened corners a few tiles wide which don't contain anything.

Edited by: Metaillusion

I was thinking for a while to write together all the little tips&tricks that i've learned during playing the game. Usually I'm playing with a warrior character, I reached level 20 a couple of times, but didn't defeated the King yet, so these tips are mostly for leveling up.
What I'm thinking a lot and I'm really concerned with is that there exist such thing as 'perfect playing'? I've noticed that a lot of times i died because it was me who made some mistake. I didn't drink the healing potion in time or i didn't used scrolls or spells that could save my life. So perfect playing means that after having a huge experience and knowing the game very well and in each situation trying to make the right decision, how much this could guarantee you survival chances. Of course this cannot be 100%, because the game very hard and random and there could be cases when you are making right decisions, but you die despite of that.
So here are several tips and trick that i've learned ont he way. Some of them are obvious, some of them is SPOILER, but I'll hope some of them will be usefull.
Maybe later I will add more.

1. If you fall into a pit, take off your armour and you'll get out more easily. Try more directions. If your inventory is full and you health is low then throw it into the pit. If you made to get out you can risk to get it back by healing yourself and making free space in your inventory and going back to the pit.
2. You can jump above traps and pits with 'Q' (taking off the armor you'll have a higher chance to succeed)
3. If you push a boulden into a pit, the pit will disappear.
4. The color and shapes of potions, rings and amulets are generated at the beginning of a new game. So by checking them in town, sometimes you'll know their type before identification.
5. 'Scroll of blessing' makes normal (not cursed) items to blessed item (sounds pretty obvious, but I didn't knew that for a long time, because its description only mentions its curse removing effect)
6. Untill you are weak and you find a ring or an amulet don't continue the exploration, but go back to town and identify it. Maybe it is a great item and can save your life in the upcoming battles.
7. You can travel to town by pressing 't' only if you cleared the whole level. So if you want to check whether you discovered all area ont he current level, press 't'. If you can fast travel to town, that means you can go to the next level.
8. One of the most important thing is that do everything to survive. Really. Everything!. For example don't save your healing potion for later, if you are in a close situation (your health is below half), or if you are hearing the sound of a monster in the next room and you dont feel yourself prepared enough, go to the next level or if you can't, reset the whole dungeon by resting in the inn.
9. You can give orders like 'Follow me' of 'Attack' to your tamed friend with 'z'.
10. You can tame bears. You'll need a scroll of polymorph and a cheese (not 'Fresh cheese'). Turn the bear into rat and tame it by giving him the cheese. Sometimes bears changing their mind, if you are attacking him when he is comfused. For that case keep an additional 'scroll of polymorph' and a cheese with yourself. But a more safety play is if you avoid moving to a tile where your bear. Give him order to move away if he is in your way.

11. Enemies with the same species are not attacking each other (like assassins, orc, damons...). Some enemies are allies (like orks with the wolves)
12. Let enemies fight with each other! They are always attacking hostile creature that are closer to them! Use this when you are entering to a new level and you are surrounded with more different type of enemies. Rest in a safe place or use jump ('q') towards a direction that they will attack each others instead of you.
13. Avoid fighting with more then one monster at once. Lure them into corridors or fight with them at the doors.
14. Sometimes NPCs are teaching you spells and talents. As I've noticed they teach you a talent only if you have free talent point, otherwise they say 'Let me think about it'. They will teach spells for free. You can reckognize them, that they are human and not wearing mask (like the assassins)
15. Let NPCs fight instead of you or help you in fight. Lure enemies towards them. It is advisable to talk with them first, maybe they can teach you something usefull.
16. Two food and two water is enough to carry with you. Always consume the one that has less amount. If you find a new food or water that has more amount - switch them.
17. Graves are risky to destroy, though usually they contains a better loot, so think twice. Open graves when you are sure no other enemies are around or an NPCs is close(in case an undead will arise).
18. You can mine cave walls with digger. It is fun though I did not find any other use of it.
19. Don't sell your cheap items in town, they will occupy precious places in the shop (sell those to the wandering merchants)
20. If you stepped into a trap or you are injured after a fight, even before checking the loot don't move untill you heal yourself. You could step into an other trap or a new enemy could spot you. If you are near a ladder or a step, go to the safe upper level to heal yourself.
21. If you are with a melee character always position yourself a way that an enemy is moving to the tile next to you and in the next turn you will attack first. Later enemies has the Heroic Charge talent and this is also essential for you to know. If an enemy spot you, it will go towards you. So make yourself spotted then hide next to a corner and let the enemy to walk into your view. You can hear them walking. So you'll notice him first and again you can make the first attack.
22. If you spot two enemies with a melee and a ranged attack at the same distance from you, always attack the ranged one. If you are lucky you'll finish him till the melee gets there, otherwise they will attack you at the same time.
23. When you are entering to a new level you have a chance to go back instantly if you are not wasting any turn there. This way you can check and prepare in case there are tough enemies.
24. If you are burning by a whelp are a flaming orb, drink from your flask. If you have more, drink from the one that has more amount in it.
25. If you have an amulet that teaches a spell use the 'safe walks' to decrease the cooldown turns (e.g. you teleported to town and you are going back the level you were earlier)
26. Sometimes gates get closed and you stuck. This case use the 'Scroll of Dislocation' or the 'Scroll of Teleport' to get throught.
27. Don't be lazy to change your equipment often (e.g. remove the 'Ring of Haste' that doubles water and food consumption when you don't need it (don't forget to put it back before fights!), or put off the 'Amulet of Ghost' Form if you encounter with an enemy that has magical attack, putting on 'Ring of Immunity' if you met with an undead mage and so on...).
28. Exploit! J If you see something fancy at the wandering merchant and you don't have enough money, you can starve them. Actually his crew. Takes a lot of turn (use 's') so make sure you have enough water and food with you. After they felt you can beat the merchant easily. If you are really mean you can sell precious item to him. You'll get them back.
29. If you met a pretty good archer and you can't go close to him, let him shoot you from a huge distance. Some shot will hit you, but you can heal yourself. Once he is out of arrows, he will switch to meele weapon.
30. If later you start to have more money and they are occupying too much place in your inventory, spend it to enchancent. Enchantments are really essential on higher levels.
31. Last but not least: Don't die!!!

Zsom wrote: 5. 'Scroll of blessing' makes normal (not cursed) items to blessed item (sounds pretty obvious, but I didn't knew that for a long time, because its description only mentions its curse removing effect)

Actually that's wrong. Common scroll of blessing doesn't bless your items. I don't remember if blessed scroll of blessing does, but blessed scroll of enchantment definitely do that as well as blessed amulet of divination (only 1/6 chance though).

Altren wrote:

Zsom wrote: 5. 'Scroll of blessing' makes normal (not cursed) items to blessed item (sounds pretty obvious, but I didn't knew that for a long time, because its description only mentions its curse removing effect)

Actually that's wrong. Common scroll of blessing doesn't bless your items. I don't remember if blessed scroll of blessing does, but blessed scroll of enchantment definitely do that as well as blessed amulet of divination (only 1/6 chance though).

This was changed in 1.05. "Scroll of Blessing can now also be used to repair damaged items and to bless weapons, armours, shields and helmets."

Ah, right. Never cared about blessing those, and tried to bless amulet to check.